Los Angeles – 27th May
We decided to take advantage of the extra day here and took a shuttle bus down to Long Beach, where we had a pleasant day walking around the old Queen Mary and a Russian Submarine.
Hopefully we will be sailing out later tonight for our journey to the Panama Canal.
We then moved to the up market shopping area called Rodeo Drive and saw scenes from the film Pretty Woman and went past shops like Versace, Amani, Gucci and Dolce and Gabanna and past Bijans with a Bugati parked outside.
After this two hour tour we walked around the Walk of Fame spotting famous actors, actresses and stars. We even bumped into Shrek.
We reboarded our coach for the drive back to our ship through the five o’clock traffic jam.
When we returned to our ship we were alarmed to find out that there had been a passenger mutiny on board, as apparently there were problems at immigration after we had gone ashore and some people did not get immigrated until 3.30pm in the afternoon. The captain was besieged by passengers and after consultation with Head Office they decided to remain in Los Angeles for an extra day. However this will be at the expense of our stop in Roatan later on the trip, which caused a further uproar amongst the passengers.
Los Angeles – 26th May
Today we arrived in Los Angeles for the start of what turned out to be an eventful day. Following the fiasco of being immigrated in San Francisco, we decided to leave the ship early to avoid a repeat. We disembarked at 8.00am and went straight through the biometric immigration procedure to the cruise lounge, where we were able to access a free WiFi and downloaded our emails and Skyped Elsie and Nicola. We had an enjoyable hour catching up with the news and seeing young Cian (who we think still recognized us).
We then joined out coach for our excursion LA Highlights and Hollywood Homes. We drove into Los Angeles, approximately 45 minute drive, down a six lane highway to board our open top twelve seated mini bus for our two hour drive round downtown Los Angeles.
After viewing Los Angeles sights we drove into Beverly Hills to drive past the houses of the rich and famous. We say houses, but the majority of places we could see were just the security gates.
Ringo Star’s House
David Beckham’s House
Madonna’s House
Vancouver – Monday, 23rd May
We arrived early in Vancouver after a short cruise across the water from Victoria. We then boarded our luxury 4 x 4 car with another couple for a drive around Vancouver through Stanley Park and then on to Shannon Falls, North America’s highest falls in the Squamish Forest Reserve.
After leaving the falls we drove to Alice Lake to wander through the forest whilst our tour guide prepared our light lunch barbeque.
After a pleasant hour or so we then drove up to Whistler, which hosted last year’s winter Olympics. This turned out to be a magnificent stop, taking in the vibrant atmosphere of the village full of people who were there to ski, snowboard or ride their mountain bikes. (Andrew you must put Whistler on your list of places to visit).
We then returned to our car and drove back to Vancouver. En route as we were travelling in a convoy of four cars linked by walkie talkies, the first car spotted a black bear, so we all stopped swung the cars around to get a better view. After a brief stop at Cypress Mountain to take in the views we returned to our ship.
Unfortunately due to heavy traffic on the way back we arrived at our ship too late to look round town, so Jenny you had better clear out the spare room – we may be back.
Victoria – Sunday, 22nd May
Today we had planned a whale watching cruise, but felt that we had seen enough whales in Alaska to last a lifetime, so we changed our excursion to a trip to visit Butchart Gardens. This turned out to be a very good decision. Butchart Gardens was created about one hundred years ago in a disused quarry.
After two hours walking around the magnificent garden we were due to catch our coach and return to the ship. However, we decided we would like a little more time in the garden and also to visit a Butterfly garden nearby. After discussion with our tour guide we got off the coach and returned to the garden for a quick lunch before catching a shuttle bus to the butterfly garden.
We made our way back to the ship where we had dinner and as the ship was remaining in port until midnight Geoffrey decided to go back into town and try out his night time photographic skills.
